It’s the first time that DJI has launched a dedicated drone for the enterprise market – targeting the commercial inspection and data collection industry.

Not one but two cameras!

The MATRICE series is basically three different drones – M200 (the basic model), with a single downward Gimbal system that can be changed according to your needs. The M210 and M210 RTK variants are perhaps the more interesting ones with the option to mount not one but two downward facing Gimbal systems or if you prefer, a single upward facing gimbal system! The upward facing camera mount is going to be pretty handy for bridge inspection and other applications.

Flight Autonomy and Collision Avoidance

Collision Avoidance and Flight control seem to be a pretty standard feature in most drones these days, the M200 series doesn’t lag behind in that regard either. With a total of 7 sensors, the M200 series drones are capable of detecting obstacles up to 30 meters ahead, while the infrared sensors that are upward facing can sense obstacles within a 5-meter range.

In addition to these sensors, DJI’s M200 has an additional safety feature in the form of an ADS-B receiver. ADS-B or Automatic Dependent Surveillance—Broadcast is used by Aircrafts to share their location and communicate with other nearby aircrafts. Although DJI’s drones that use the ADS-B to transmit their own location, they will be used to inform the drone pilot when an aircraft is coming in range. This way, the drone pilot or perhaps even an flight autonomy application can automatically land the drone before it gets in the way of a commercial airliner!

Third Party Sensors

In addition to the existing camera mounts that DJI supports, the M200 series will also be able to support third party sensors as well. It’s probably not going to be long, before someone decides to build a LiDAR sensor for the M200 series!

DJI had announced that the drones will start shipping in the second quarter of this year. There is no official word on the price yet but its fair to expect that this will be DJI’s most expensive drone yet!

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I am one of those passionate "Geo-geeks" and "Geo-people" who is just too excited about everything Geo and Management. Location information and spatial technologies are just too big to take a back seat and watch them revolutionize the world. Always curious and looking for ways to innovate, I guess that it comes naturally by the gene pool I inherited from an engineer Mom and a researcher Dad.